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Monday, August 20, 2012

"It shall be the duties of the king"

We discussed recently how because of Sao Feng's foolish mistake, Elizabeth becomes Pirate Lord of the South China Sea. She arrives at Shipwreck cove right in time for all the bickering. At this moment, she proves herself to be the opposite of a hippie: she wants war, as does Jack Sparrow. But only the King of the Brethren Court may declare war, so they bring out the Keeper of the Code and the Pirate Codex. And after some searching around, Captain Teague declares: "Ah. Barbossa is right." Jack: "Hang on a minute." Jack then reads straight from the book: "'It shall be the duties, as the king, to declare war, parley with shared adversaries . . .' Fancy that." Gotta love old parley. Chevalle, the Pirate Lord of the Mediterranean Sea, says: "There has not been a king since the First Court. And that's not likely to change." That's what you think. When Jack Sparrow is in the room, you never know how things are going to bo about. Teague agrees: "Not likely." Elizabeth, the rookie, asks: "Why not?" Gibbs: "See, the pirate king is elected by popular vote. And each pirate only ever votes for hisself." Figures, doesn't it? None of these pirate captains want to take orders from anyone but themselves.

But Jack ignores this fact and changes things up a bit. Jack: "I call for a vote." Barbossa leads everyone else in an impatient sigh. But at least there's not actually fighting. They all go around the table and announce their vote. As expected, everyone votes for themself. Including Barbossa and Elizabeth. You'd think that Elizabeth would team up with Jack, since he's the only way she can get what she wants done. Jack is the final person to vote, and everyone expects him to say "Jack Sparrow". But he shocks the world yet again: "Elizabeth Swann." Um, that didn't go as planned. Even Elizabeth is shocked: "What?" Jack: "I know. Curious, isn't it?" So this brings about a lot of shouting and outrage, for good reason. I mean, who would want Elizabeth to be thier king? Jack: "Am I to understand that you lot will not be keeping to the code, then?" Not keeping to the code?!!! I don't think so. The keeper of the code, who just so happens to be hanging out in the back, breaks a string of his guitar in outrage. This shuts everyone up pretty darn quickly. Mistress Ching, the Pirate Lord of the Pacific Ocean, gives in: "Very well. What say you, Captain Swann, king of the Brethren Court?"

Doesn't exactly have a ring to it. As she is saying this, Barbossa just rolls his eyes in a very bothered way. You see, Jack and Elizabeth both agreed on what the Brethren Court should do, but nobody else did. And since the king would decide, Jack voted for Elizabeth so that she would have the power to do just what he want her to do: declare war. Of course, it could have gone the other way around, where Elizabeth votes for Jack, but she voted for herself first, not thinking as much as Jack did. Elizabeth: "Prepare every vessel that floats. At dawn, we're at war." Her Brittish accent seems to become more and more present as the movie progresses. Jack nods in approval. Sumbhajee, the Pirate Lord of the Indian Ocean, who hasn't spoke the whole meating, stands up and announces, in a VERY high-pitched voice: "And so we shall go to war." Pretty epic. So then dawn comes and all the pirates are in their ships prepared for battle. Except, as usual, it doesn't go as planned. That's what you get when a girl like Elizabeth makes all the decisions. The pirates realize that they're out numbered by East India Trady Company vessels.

It's a good thing Jack looked at that Pirate Code, because now he knows that the Pirate King can parley with the enemy. So Elizabeth, Barbossa, and Jack meet up for some pretty intense parley with Davy Jones, Cutler Beckett, and Will. Elizabeth informs Beckett that the pirates will fight anyways. But things are getting pretty desperate, so they release Calypso, the goddess of the sea from her human bonds, praying that she'll be merciful to the pirates and vengeful on Davy Jones and help them in victory. But instead it seems that she just turned into hundreds of crabs and left them. A bit awkward. So now what shall be done? Elizabeth, as usual, seems to have all the answers. Lizzie: "It's not over." Will: "There's still a fight to be had." But the rest of the crew doesn't seem as optimistic. Gibbs: "We've an armada against us, and with the Dutchman, there's no chance." Elizabeth: "There's only a fool's chance." Good thing you're a fool. Barbossa: "Revenge won't bring your father back, Miss Swann, and it's not somehting I'm intending to die for." I'm not trying to burst your bubble dude, but most likely Beckett's going to put you to death anyways. And what are you going to do with all these pirate ships out in the open? You've kinda reached the point of no return. Cue the hard core music!